This scary art exhibit uses wearable tech to examine the relationship between personal freedom and new technology.

Via XCEED:

Collar AG is a wearable device that creates a unique experience of spatial intervention. The device pretends to be an audio guide to walk you through the exhibition site, giving you the information about the artwork automatically. Yet, the device will intervene your behavior. Collar AG is a fashionable object that act as a remediation of the ideological frames of the internet. The project attempts to experiment this seductive and contradictory situation.

Creators describes more about the wearable:

Its features were inspired by Google’s filter bubbles, wherein the company’s algorithm begins to provide users with selective search results aligning with their pre-existing worldview, based on previous activity. In pursuit of mimicking this ideologically limiting behavior, the Collar AG closely monitors its wearer and instructs their actions in the gallery space. “We installed different sensors in space, so when the visitor puts on the Collar AG and walks through the space, our system will know their location,” XCEED Artistic Director Chris Cheung tells Creators.

The sensors not only track movement, they also trigger Suri, a hacked version of Apple’s Siri. Suri acts as a guide for the wearer, explaining details about different pieces in the exhibition. As Suri offers opinions on the art and prevents visitors from diverging from her prescribed path, the more Big Brother-esque aspects of the Collar X and Collar AG come into play. Depending on the size of the space, the countdown clock forces wearers to adhere to a strict 20 to 30 minute timeframe for viewing the exhibition. As the timer approaches its pre-ordained deadline, the collar emits a disruptive buzzing noise.

Check out Collar AG at XCEED and read more about it at Creators

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